1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a household appliance control system for switching or controlling at least one household appliance, and it relates to the reduction of the number of switches, and it relates to a device supplying power and to a device supplying functional commands.
2. Description of Related Art
In buildings and houses current consumers like for instance household appliances are usually switched by a system, which usually comprises switches, which do open or close a power supply line by actuating one single actuating element per switch and per household appliance, hereby supplying the respective current consumer with its current or not. Hence also more than one of the household appliances can be connected to a single actuating element or switch respectively, like for instance all the lamps in one room.
However, the term “household appliance” in this application is defined such that said term means at least one household appliance. A current consumer of such a type can be connected to a building power supply network directly or indirect via a socket-outlet, like lamps for instance.
Particularly in the constellation of said second example it is also possible, that if such a switch, operating for instance as a child-proof switch, switches all the current consumers at the same time, which are connected to said socket-outlet, like for instance switching an immersion boiling device, a vacuum cleaner, a lamp or even a TV.
This feature, that a variety of different appliances being switched by one switch only can also be provided by said current consumers themselves, for instance by a multi-outlet power strip, if they are all connected to said building power supply network. In this example or by the help of similar solutions, a plurality of current consumers, which are all connected to the building power supply network, can be switched by one single switch only.
Since the most current consumers provide their own characteristic surge impedance, which however can also comprise a capacitive portion, it is characteristic for such a type of switching operation, that with each switching operation, always a different capacity affects said building power supply network, particularly in the case that a plurality of current consumers at once is connected to said building power supply network. It is further more characteristic for such a type of switching operation, that during the respective switching operation an always-different capacitance affects said building power supply network. It is useless to say that in the case when current consumers are switched for a long lasting period they also do provide a long lasting affection.
This type of capacitive or inductive portions of power provide a significant obstacle to develop as household appliance control system, because according to this reason and due to such a type of noise it is simply not possible to use the building power supply network to transport any data.
An additional obstacle to use said building power supply network to transport data is the negative experience the industry made with the so called “power line”, since said companies were not able to minimize the radio interference of said so called “power line” below the threshold allowed, resulting that experts concluded, that it would not be possible to use the building power supply network for data transportation purpose significantly.
In the course of this application this type of state of the art systems, which supply the building power supply network with a characteristic impedance, which however can also comprise a capacitive portion, will be called “break contact opening systems”.